The most important role of the pastor

In Acts 6, the apostles are confronted with the problem of who will do the work of ministry – the feeding of the widows. This is what happened and what they decided:

Acts 6:2-4 And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. “But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. “But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”

They made the decisive and theological decision not to serve tables but to spend the bulk of their time in prayer and ministry of the word (which I take to mean teaching, preaching, counseling, discipling, thinking, writing).

This is an important lesson for us today. The most important role of the pastor is to devote his time to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

This was the topic of the BASICS 2012 conference in Ohio this past May. More information can be found at this site.